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davidu

5,831 karma · joined October 11, 2007

I'm David Ulevitch. Founder and CEO of OpenDNS. GP at a16z.

I have a website at http://david.ulevitch.com/

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davidu··on Salesforce to Acquire Fin (formerly Intercom) for $3.6B
Massive congrats to Eoghan McCabe, what an amazing story arc. We love when a CEO comes back and gets the business back in fighting shape and then delivers an incredible win. CONGRATS CONGRATS CONGRATS. I freakin' love it.
davidu··on After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet, Phone Ban
How is it more telling or adding more credulity? Wouldn’t I be in a strong position to know? And how am I losing my mind?
davidu··on After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet, Phone Ban
credibly accused.
davidu··on After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet, Phone Ban
This has not happened with Flock, nor have they ever been credibly accused of this. And what a weak conspiracy style post to insinuate it has.
davidu··on Setting up a free *.city.state.us locality domain (2025)
This is assuredly not happening.
davidu··on Setting up a free *.city.state.us locality domain (2025)
I had ulevitch.delmar.ca.us delegated to me until one day some IT dweeb just deleted it and when I complained he just said I didn't have any right to have it.

So I'd caution against this path for something you actually care about.

davidu··on U.S. Debt Tops 100% of GDP
Because raising taxes has only resulted in more spending, not balancing the budget.
davidu··on Small Engines
This helps define some of the challenges with making very very small turbine engines. We have electrical (lithium) powered drones but they are heavy and have low energy density compared to what a liquid fuel + turbine could provide. But could we make a 2 inch diameter turbine engine reliably? Maybe!
davidu··on Koralm Railway
It turns out, you can build new high speed railways. Take note California!
davidu··on How elites could shape mass preferences as AI reduces persuasion costs
"Historically, elites could shape support only through limited instruments like schooling and mass media"

Well, I think the author needs to understand a LOT more about history.

davidu··on Map of Near and Middle East Oil 1965
It's not AI slop, it's probably not even AI. You simply are unable to parse the description, or the map, or both.
davidu··on Tinder, Hinge, and their corporate owner keep rape under wraps
Palantir, the incredible American technology company run by one of the most successful Black Americans? That's great.
davidu··on Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk
link?
davidu··on Fivetran to acquire Census
Congrats to the Census team and the Fivetran team!
davidu··on Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch
Tom who is stepping in is an awesome executive. He was OG Pandora and Snap before Quibi and was on the Sonos board. He's a true product person. I'm sure he was enjoying semi-retirement and see him dropping in as CEO is a huge upgrade. :-)
davidu··on Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch
So what are people using instead of Sonos AMP for home sound control?
davidu··on Show HN: Django Daisy – Modern Django Dashboard with DaisyUI
Really nice work.
davidu··on Honeycrisp apples went from marvel to mediocre
This article doesn't explain why a hudson valley grown honeycrisp would taste worse now than 10 years ago? Those are still coming from the boutique farms where you can pick them off the tree. It only explains why big apple in Washington is ruining the national honeycrisp market. Or did I miss something?
davidu··on Gavin Newsom vetoes SB 1047
This is a massive win for tech, startups, and America.
davidu··on Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host
This is such a big story and yet most of HN just doesn't care. It should make the WSJ though.
davidu··on Geothermal energy could outperform nuclear power
That ranks as one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, and it was really not bad on a human or planetary scale. Carbon-based power plants kill far more on an annual basis.
davidu··on Geothermal energy could outperform nuclear power
That's untrue.
davidu··on Geothermal energy could outperform nuclear power
The word temporary is only used to placate people who don't understand nuclear / nuclear waste (waste is a bad term) and who have been badly influenced by 70 years of misinformation from The Sierra Club and others.

None of this spent fuel is really that spent, has plenty of other use cases, and should be used. Also, storing it in concrete casks for 40 years is perfectly safe and has caused 0 harm.

The cost is largely due to regulatory hurdles that are slowly being eroded.

davidu··on Surveillance Watch – the hidden connections within the surveillance industry
So much of this data is so wrong. It's bizarrely and obviously wrong.
davidu··on Private Equity–Backed Firm Bowlero Is Ruining Bowling
I don't know if this article is true but many assertions are untrue. The bowlero stock is pretty level and up from when it went public. It never made it past $17 from the $10 opening (SPAC probably?). So I have no idea what this author is talking about when he says it's been a wild ride.
davidu··on Calling Time on DNSSEC?
DNSSEC is a complicated kitchen sink that doesn't do the fundamentals (encrypt DNS traffic). It is also very black-box with the current tooling (not by design, but by implementation) which makes deployment perilous and confusing.

It's really a PKI infrastructure masquerading as a secure DNS system.

There's value in a PKI infrastructure for domain names, but it probably won't look exactly like DNSSEC. And there's value in encrypting DNS, but that is definitely not DNSSEC. I helped invent and deploy DNSCrypt which is strong encrypted DNS, but doesn't provide the PKI components. There are plenty of ways to do that part, however, that would be much lighter in weight than DNSSEC.

I'm not motivated to do it now with my current day job (American Dynamism) but someone out there could.

davidu··on A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing
We're not one monolith of content. Folks post what they want and think is interesting. You can also imagine a lot of our portco CEOs don't love when we mention their competitors.

Some of us do it more than others, depending on the topic or point of the post. Market maps do it a lot more than position pieces, as you'd expect, for instance. Anyways, the feedback is good.

davidu··on Outbreak Linked to Morel Mushroom Exposure – Montana, 2023
For those curious, this was Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman, MT. Very sad and scary. It appears that food storage and handling had a role here.
davidu··on Cisco Acquires Splunk
Meraki and OpenDNS both became better post acquisition, and in both cases I’d say it was because Cisco let them continue to maintain a lot of control, the leaders stayed around, and the majority of the engineering teams did, too. Cisco has a long list of successful acquisitions. The release says Gary will report to Chuck directly, which is a strong sign Chuck will make sure Splunk succeeds. (nb, I was CEO of OpenDNS)
davidu··on Drone cops are coming for small-town America
Tasers aren't bullets. The narrative on tasers has long-shifted to it being preferred over deadly force. Tasers promote the elimination of police bullets.
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